AMOKArts

Ministering to artists ministering through the arts.

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I highly recommend Dave Weiss for your ministry events. He connects with people in very real ways using amazing art skills and applying the truth of God's Word and soaking you thoroughly in God's love. Book him now for your next service. You won't regret it. I know I didn't. I'm honored to know him. What a great guy!!!!!
Pastor Matt Christ
Little Swatara Church of the Brethren

Posts Tagged ‘#inktober’

I’ve been having a great time with this little exercise in creativity, and it’s been really fun to see what the rest of the Inktober community has been doing. If you’re new to my page, I joined a challenge for artists to make a daily creation based on a preset list of themes. I decided to work in something I call radical symmetry and in the style of some of my first artistic influences, the car artists of the 60s and 70s. As such these are a little edgier than my usual stuff, and they’re not faith based for the most part, (though I am going to share faith through them at the end, stay tuned) but it has been a lot of fun.

As you all know, one of the things I encourage is creating every day. Well for the last 9 days or so, I have been participating in a challenge called Inktober. It’s basically just a challenge to create something each day. Well I got in and really didn’t completely understand the challenge until about five days in when I found the official prompt list. A prompt list is a list of challenges meant to stretch you further. Well, once I found the list, I decided to catch up and play along. Yesterday after a very busy few weeks, I took a creative day and aside from the two sessions I worked on for my masters class, I decided to schedule a day of creative fun, where I played catch up. I now have all nine days done so far. It will now be much easier to stay caught up.

They really don’t take me a lot of time and I’m setting my own parameters. I’ve decided to call my series, The Faces of Inktober, and as such I am making stylized pieces based on the influence I am currently exploring, as mentioned earlier, the car artists of the 60s and 70s. These parameters force me to work on only one thing and finding ways to make the prompt fit my theme. That makes me get even more creative and the parameter of doing only a face and a simple background, keeps me in something I can do in a manageable amount of time. It’s really stretching me and I’m having fun. Further I have decided to do most of my pieces in symmetry. As such I am drawing a very detailed “half face” and then manipulating the art in photoshop to make the completed piece.

Today’s word was precious. Now my first thought was a portrait of my grandson, but I’m not a great realist, so I decided to go with my first instinct instead. Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, because he called the ring his “precious.” This fit much better with the style in which I am working, and it was fun. When I finish the challenge, I am planning on making a video called The Faces of Inktober. Watch for it in early November on my Youtube channel. How do you challenge yourself to grow and to be more creative.

I was on Facebook the other day and I saw something called #inktober. The basic idea is for all us artsy types who work in ink, to create a piece each day. I decided, since I usually already create at least one piece every day, to participate. I think it will be fun, but more than that, it gives me a goal and a challenge. Where before I might put creating off for a day or two, now I’m more likely to put something out.

Last year, I participated in NaNoWriMo in November. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The idea behind the challenge is pretty simple, by the end of November you should have a 50,000 word rough manuscript. They have a pretty great website where you can log your daily word count, get inspiration, encouragement, etc. My book Enough, while not technically a novel was the result of my participation in NaNoWriMo. I’m not sure if I will be participating in NaNoWriMo this year, as it is a lot of work at a pastor’s busiest time of year, but I do have a screenplay/novel that has been gnawing at my brain, and a Master’s thesis that could probably be blessed by a challenge, so you never know.

The point in sharing these things is this. If you are a person who finds yourself stuck creatively, or you just want to do something fun, a challenge is a great way to break the creative ice. I’m sure there are challenges out there for just about every creative discipline if you know where to look. They really can be helpful. It all comes down to that idea of how to eat an elephant. One bite at a time. Large challenges can be so intimidating. If I told you you had to create 31 pieces of work this month, you might be tempted to throw up your hands and say no way can I do that, but to do one a day is really not terribly difficult. If I told you I need you to write 50,000 words in a month, you might have a similar reaction, but 1500 words a day feels much more manageable.

I will close with the words of speaker/author Andy Andrews. When asked if he likes to write, he said, “I like having written.” Thousands, maybe millions of people want to write a book or create great art. The ones who succeed are the ones who do the work. Challenges can help us in that regard. Find a challenge and get involved. On a related note, what kind of challenge might we offer here that would be beneficial to you in your ministry.

By the way here is day three of #inktober for me. I’m really into car art these days, so probably more than a few of these will probably reflect that influence (like this one), while others will be from ministry presentations, posters, etc. Sometimes it’s more about creating than it is about what you create.